You make it conditional this way so it only launches if jwm is the window manager - otherwise use just xcompmgr& by itself further up.

Jwm has some "sane defaults" but you can add tags to your jwmrc-theme like:
<TrayStyle>
<Opacity>.6</Opacity>
<Font>DejaVu Sans-14:Bold</Font>
<Foreground>white</Foreground>
<Background>#718995</Background>
</TrayStyle>
for example.

The opacity tag accepts values between 0 and 1.

ADDED:one more thing
In the file /etc/profile, around line 89, you can comment out this line:
#export XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1
but it may not be necessary. You can experiment with this, but leave it alone and see if trans works first without commenting it out. It really depends on what apps are going to use argb visuals.

I just got xcompmgr going in 431 without commenting out the line, but did have to add to end of xorg.conf:

Code:

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "1"
EndSection

This is probably required for the 4.x versions of puppy.

Quirky may have xcompmgr by default - not sure. Wary 07 has ver 1.4 i think.
In this shot the effect is overdone at .6 opacity to illustrate:

Hi there. I need help. I'm trying to make xcompmgr work on puppy 4.3.1 but i always get No extension...
I'm not good in compiling.I downloaded the package from debian packages instead of the ubuntu repo. The only available version is for squeeze. I've seen that in lupu 5.01 everything work good and easily, but in puppy 4.3.1... Any suggestion?

Unagi is a modular compositing manager which aims to be efficient, lightweight and responsive. It is currently written in C programming language and based on XCB library client library. Any existing window manager can be used as long as it implements properly EWMH and ICCCM specifications (or at least parts of it which are needed), which is generally the case nowadays.

Thanks for your suggestion. But in the meanwhile i've solved the problem with xcompmgr.
Found the package for lenny, but also the squeeze one works fine, and it's more updated.
The problem was in the screen settings in xorg.conf. Depth was set to 24, when i set it to 16 it works without problems.
I've made a tutorial here:
TUTORIAL
integrating the above precious suggestions and my personal experience in this, and i want to thank you for share your know-how with us newbee.
At the end of that tutorial i've put a simple .pet that create the menu item to launch xcompmgr when you want, without keeping an open console. You can modify its settings in /usr/local/bin/xcompmgrlauncher. I'd like to create a gtk GUI to manage those settings, i've found a tutorial about it here in HOW-TO section of this forum. If i'll have problems (surely i'll have many) i'll post there.
Btw, this is what i got with xcompmgr (the theme is one created by me, nothing special, if someone like it and want it let me know):

@Apiep - fluxbox already has an extensive pseudo-trans capability which doesn't require Xorg (but can use a compmgr if I recall correctly .. I also recall it was somewhat unstable for me in the past), openbox uses a compmgr more for quicker renders as I understand some openbox blogs, xfce4 will use a compmgr effectively for translucency effects (and has a nice ui-applet for that purpose but xfce4 is generally held to be a somewhat 'heavier' wm), e16 and e17 have differing methods for pseudo-trans and composite-style translucency (the pseudo-trans tends to be more stable and efficient), afterstep can and does use the 'extra' alpha values in an 8-character hex extensively for reveals.

Composite drawing can be quite various in how efficient it is, mostly depending on how it's integrated into a window manager's operation schedule of priorities. The deal in jwm probably gives the most 'bang for the buck' in the current general overview (as far as true translucency effects simply achieved for most users).

Hello,
I already mentioned (somewhere in this Forum but didn't get any answer...) some translucency/shadow problems encountered with latest releases of JWM.
First, I noticed that it is no use to specify

Quote:

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "1"
EndSection

inside the Xorg configuration file anymore .
Then, as a picture is better than long speeches, please see the picture below...
Has somebody got this? This happens with both of my PCs (running Racy 5.3): When moving windows, these let white areas on the screen and shadows are becoming dark...
It is a pity because latest JWM releases have got anti aliasing icons feature and I cannot take advantage of it!

Joe Wing is aware of the transparency bug, I have had communication with him. I am running an older version in a dev version of Slacko, jwm-523. I think that's where the bug began. Transparency works well in that version but you don't get the bugfixes for menu refresh and some full screen bugs and change of resolution. Other than that it is reasonably stable.

@Argolance - thanks for that, maybe once I get xorg settled in a bit better with racy on my old kit..

Did notice that jwm is a bit 'off' lately as far as x/kcompmgr translucency effects (and expected window behavior) go. Racy 5.3 has vsvn-574 as stock/oem.

Here's a largish caplink @683k with some notes (the grayish one on lower left pertains to the issue) - A few examples of remnants .. mercifully I kept the cap from going real messy as can happen fairly easily (especially with my autohide oversized pager, let alone menu-o-rama and junk-shades). Wish the cap could have been smaller, but translucency and text kind of dictated the size

Good to hear that Joe's on it (thanks for the heads up, 01micko!)

___addenda 120910___
Tried a few other jwm binaries with "xcompmgr -n" translucency option - only a few seem available in the general repos (wary 5 seemed the best bet for me)

Indeed, jwm vsvn-562 exhibits much the same symptoms with translucency via xcompmgr as vsvn-574 (although initially it only manifested as 'junk' shades, further use brought up the rest of the display remnants).

jwm vsvn-505 works much better with "xcompmgr -n" translucency option, still a noticeable flicker when navigating root (obvious) and window (barely) menus. No remnants on screen and that's the major glitch that plagues later versions as far as obvious-to-the-eye stuff.

Small point - the htop process list 'roll' is almost certainly a side effect of using the -fading option in terminals that offer such (mrxvt and urxvt81). Funny, it's almost an animation of the fade/unfade (easy to see with sloppy focus).